Sidmouth and Ottery Men’s fifth XI took on high-flying Tiverton in what proved to be a bad-tempered encounter, played at Ottery St Mary.

It was clear from the outset that the visitors meant business, by taking full advantage of an empty pitch prior to the match, by running through a training session.

Unbeaten in the league before the match, Tiverton showed off their skills and were able to score on a regular basis.

But even with this, some of their players became more and more frustrated with how things were going, with a lot angry talk among their players and dissent shown to the umpires.

As the match drew on, the umpires started to show cards of green and yellow to different players.

At its worst, a player who had just been invited back on to the pitch by the umpire was immediately yellow-carded again and, with his complaints continuing, the visiting skipper was also shown a yellow card for failing to control his team.

Despite fewer players on the pitch, Tiverton were still able to score but the home side defended well at times to prevent an even worse score.

They even managed to put in some spirited attacks to draw the visiting keeper into the game.

The fifths travel to Ashmoor this weekend, with the Exeter-based side only one point above them in the league.